pedal plenty

You know how I called my bike Laika after the first, so very brave, dog-in-space. Well, while no-one was looking at work I also called one of the servers Laika too. And I spend a lot of time talking either about Laika (the bike one) or Laika (the server one). Then Frauleine Direktor suggested that perhaps I was becoming somewhat obsessional about the cosmonautic canine so I have decided to call my bike Haggis instead. Gussie thinks it’s a good idea to stop calling things Laika in case they suffer the same fate as the space pooch (unpleasant melt down after 4 hours). Oh look there goes the server ….

So today Haggis (not the pudding but the bike) came home. She’d been at the bike shop and she is now Haggis agus*….

• new shifters for the small paws. Shimano ST-R700
• new shorter crank for the short legs, from France 46-36-26. Specialite TA Vega triple 165mm
  
• new 9 speed cassette 11-34. Shimano XT M770.
• new chain. Shiman0 HG93 9 speed.
• new shorter bar stem so I can reach the handle bars now! Bontrager Race X Lite 60mm
• Frog legs levers. Crane Creek Crosstop.
• new wider handle bars so I can fit my handle bar bag. This means I don’t need to buy front panniers which would just encourage me to carry mor unnecessary rubbish.
• new bottom bracket, brake pad, cantilever cradle, cables, handle bar tape (Red), fit bar bag thingies
• trued wheels, oiled stuff, blew up tyres, test ride
• Gill agus £607.45 lighter

* Kultchural note: Haggis agus = Haggis and. Haggis agus was a Gaelic cookery programme that encouraged Scots to learn to cook and learn Gaelic at the same time. Of course Scots are renowned for being rubbish at cooking (except perhaps the cooking of the deep fried Mars Bars) and rubbish at languages too (some people however are quite fluent in Weegie). Our Gaelic language skills did not extend beyond Haggis Agus and our culinary development stalled with the haute cuisine of the La brioche et frites avec sauce d’effluent chimique . Other Gaelic words we Scots know include:

• slainte = cheers as in when you take a drink of uisge-beatha = whisky
• Parlamaid = Parlour Maid .. eh I mean Parliament as in Parlamaid na h-Alba
• Donnie Murdo = Danger Mouse